Update: Charges dismissed against suspected sex tourist

Updated 10:44 pm, Tuesday, March 12, 2013

UPDATE: The charges filed against Brent Rule were dismissed without prejudice May 30, 2013.

A Seattle man described by prosecutors as a suspected sex tourist has been charged with possession of child pornography.

Filing charges earlier this month, King County prosecutors contend Ballard resident Brent Alan Rule was caught at Sea-Tac International Airport with child pornography in his luggage.

Rule, 65, was arrested in November 2011 after returning from a trip to Thailand. He is now charged with possession of child pornography.

According to charging papers, federal authorities suspect Rule has traveled abroad as a sex tourist.

“The Department of Homeland Security clearly considers the defendant as a potential sex tourism perpetrator and thus he has been stopped on numerous occasions when coming and going to southeast Asian countries,” Senior Deputy Prosecutor Cecelia Gregson said in court documents. “The State has concerns the defendant will simply return to a country with less stringent protections for children to avoid prosecution in this matter.”

Homeland Security agents searching Rule’s luggage initially found images they believed to show a nude girl 12 to 15 years old, a Port of Seattle police officer told the court. Rule was then arrested and questioned about the photos.

Speaking with agents, Rule allegedly told them to take all his photos. Rule was released following the interview, and then evaded investigators when they attempted to continue their work.

Rule has since been charged with possession of child pornography. He is not currently in custody; a $50,000 warrant has been issued for his arrest.